Getting the Killer B's is going to be hugely expensive

[rburgh]

Bench, Brett, Buehrle are all in missions where you have to get all the cards. (So are Bagwell and Sale, but Bagwell's no killer and Stanton is no "B",)

[PunishedF2P]

So sorry, OOTP devs: but this is another very poorly put together mission set with poor rewards.

Buehrle is not impressive at all for this point in the season (Greg Maddux is waaay better and you can grab him for 100K). Bullpen guy for any competitive team, at best. Bagwell or Stanton are straight-up throwaways.

Bench and Brett look great, but the mission design of releasing brand new cards as every card in the mission, and then requiring every single card to complete it - terrible.

Topps 4 Collection doesn't even have a card reward, just a perfect pack? Trash. Completing all 5 Topps collections doesn't have a topper, either?? That's really trash.

[rburgh]

You've nailed it. A much better design would have been to require, for each of the toppers, completion of separate mini-missions, each requiring say, 10 of 15 existing irons to get the new iron, 8 of 12 existing bronzes to get the new bronze, 6 of 8 existing silvers to get the new silver, 5 of 6 existing golds to get the new gold, 3 of 4 existing diamonds to get the new diamond, and 2 of 3 existing perfects to get the new perfect. Then all the six new cards are needed to get the topper.

[Hwilensky]

I wish I knew how to add a GIF....But again...a blatant grab for cash....they consistently turn off the masses for the select 50 people who actually spend major amounts of money. Just like the new score they came up with...some whale probably whispered in their ear, and said "I want to see how my team stacks up against the other whales, can you come up with some cockamammy score, so I can see how my team is doing against their's", and they were like...ok.....

[bailey]

I think these missions (or the reward card alone) will be reasonably priced in about 2-3 months. The Negro League missions were released with all new cards and those NL #1 and #2 are easy to complete now and for #3, it was just easier to buy the reward card.

[PunishedF2P]

Originally Posted by bailey

I think these missions (or the reward card alone) will be reasonably priced in about 2-3 months. The Negro League missions were released with all new cards and those NL #1 and #2 are easy to complete now and for #3, it was just easier to buy the reward card.

I agree, but by then the cards will have significantly less value relative to the newer releases and rewards - and the difference with the Negro League mission sets is that you don't need every single card for the mission; you can complete it a variety of ways. This will inevitably keep the prices much higher.

I did complete the NL 3 mission set because it is relatively safe to assume that there will be another Josh Gibson type reward for completing NL 3+4 (like there was for 1+2), and possibly another topper or at least a perfect pack for completing all 4 sets.

It cost me around 225K using buy orders (I think Hilton was at 185K L10 at the time) to complete, so I paid a little extra, but I think it'll be worth it in the long run.

[LeeD]

I happily sold one of the Iron component cards for 12,000 points this afternoon, so there's some benefit to these missions. Other than that....

[LeeD]

Originally Posted by Hwilensky

I wish I knew how to add a GIF....But again...a blatant grab for cash....they consistently turn off the masses for the select 50 people who actually spend major amounts of money. Just like the new score they came up with...some whale probably whispered in their ear, and said "I want to see how my team stacks up against the other whales, can you come up with some cockamammy score, so I can see how my team is doing against their's", and they were like...ok.....

I expect the team score is a trial run for some sort of reward in next year's version. That might very well benefit the whales disproportionately, but it should also benefit everyone in some way.

[Kushiel]

Soon we will need a wheel barrow full of cash to buy fancy packs every Thursday. This game is turning into an intensive, unapologetic cash grab.

[rburgh]

But I know people who have strong diamond level teams without spending cash.

[HRBaker]

This is what happens when you raise the talent so-far, so-fast, that you reach a point you either have to create "supermen" or you have to cloth players in superman outfits.

[Kushiel]

Originally Posted by rburgh

But I know people who have strong diamond level teams without spending cash.

But for how long? The way the stats are inflating on cards so rapidly, the talent to stay solid/competitive is beginning to need an infusion of talent almost weekly. At some point there will not be enough tournaments or Twitch drops to keep up and live card speculating is very nearly over. How are you going to get those 150+ stat cards that you will need in another month at this rate?

I know somebody that won the Texas Lotto too but it did nothing for me or against me.

[bailey]

Originally Posted by Kushiel

Soon we will need a wheel barrow full of cash to buy fancy packs every Thursday. This game is turning into an intensive, unapologetic cash grab.

The only people who grab my cash are thieves and government. Now that I am retired, I can grab the government's money and buy perfect points. Your tax dollars at work! (I haven't felt the need to buy any yet, except for PT Plus.). I am strongly tempted though, because I am so close to a great team. The worst thing that could happen to me right now is to win diamond league when perfect points are on sale.

[Kushiel]

The problem is making it a cash grab in my opinion by releasing all new cards at the same time a mission is released. Saving cards to keep for future missions is almost foolish now. When we started this PT thing and Kris was doing missions there was a reason to collect cards. It was a good chance that sooner or later that card would be needed. This was a true card collection game. As an avid collector since 1950, I was hooked then. I defended point sales as need to support Markus and the Crew build this wonderful game. I still do. But, I disagree with the (still)new ownership plan of milking the game for all they can get. We lose players every season with the biggest complaint being the cost of time and/or money outweighing their enjoyment. Inflation hurts the whole world right now. This hurts you and me and all the players that keep playing. I don't have the answer but they need to find a happy medium for the rank and file player to keep him around for the money and time whales to use.

[Hwilensky]

Originally Posted by Kushiel

The problem is making it a cash grab in my opinion by releasing all new cards at the same time a mission is released. Saving cards to keep for future missions is almost foolish now. When we started this PT thing and Kris was doing missions there was a reason to collect cards. It was a good chance that sooner or later that card would be needed. This was a true card collection game. As an avid collector since 1950, I was hooked then. I defended point sales as need to support Markus and the Crew build this wonderful game. I still do. But, I disagree with the (still)new ownership plan of milking the game for all they can get. We lose players every season with the biggest complaint being the cost of time and/or money outweighing their enjoyment. Inflation hurts the whole world right now. This hurts you and me and all the players that keep playing. I don't have the answer but they need to find a happy medium for the rank and file player to keep him around for the money and time whales to use.

Well said...two years ago they had 50,000 "teams" playing...this year 18.6K. They have to find the happy medium. They won't..because they really don't care about the rank and file....I guess the 50 whales or so are enough to make them happy....more power to them...

[rburgh]

He has, so far, paid cash for nothing but the game and the PT+. I'm still working, a widower, collecting Social Security, and have a great deal of disposable income. My two dogs occupy a lot of my free time, and so I spend money to build my team, which has been at the diamond level since 2028.


Through 2047, I averaged 89 wins, and made the playoffs 11 times in those 20 seasons. I qualified for one of the PTCS tourneys in August of 2047, got lucky and figured an angle that most apparently missed with the ground rules of that event, and finished 2nd overall to snag Frank Thomas. Frank propelled me to a strong position to start the 2047 season, and when they dropped the Clemente misssion that Thursday it was a cinch that a guy who was born in 1950 and raised in Pittsburgh with a Pirate fan for a mother, idolized him and would do a lot to add him to the team..


I had many of the cards for his missions from previous packs and some modest tourney luck, so I bought a million (actually 1.2 million) PP's, finsihed the missions, bought Billy Hamilton, and the two combined with the Big Hurt to lead me to my 2nd 105 win season at diamond and the ring.


I had plenty of PP's left over, so when the Immortals set 3 dropped I had plenty of card inventory available to make the PP cost of getting the two IS3 packs immediately amount to less than half of my stash. I was lucky, and got Brown and Gooden to head my rotation. I had gotten off to a slow start in the Perfect league, I think I was 10 games under .500 when they dropped the IS3 cards and missions. But I used the rest of my stash to get O'Neill and those 3 dragged me to an 80-82 finish.


Back in Diamond for 2049, and I'm in the same division with Bailey. As he told me, he likes me better in the other conference. Also as he says, he has a good team. He has the 2nd best record in the conference, and 6th overall in the league. But I'm 17 1/2 games ahead of him in the division. There's a 2-time PL champ in the other division, and three other very strong teams. And as I told Bailey, the playoffs are a crap shoot.


I'm sorry it bothers you that people like me take your fun out of the game. I'm still working at my age because I need to buy a few more rental properties before I feel comfortable retiring. In that game, I'm jealous of Donald Trump and his compadres. But I am happy with my small triumphs and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for my working career.

[PunishedF2P]

Originally Posted by rburgh

I'm sorry it bothers you that people like me take your fun out of the game.

I don't think this is what anyone meant - in fact, it's the opposite in many ways - we (F2P grinders) are grateful to the spenders and whales for keeping the game going! In today's marketplace of gaming, this is just the way it is; and without you, and others like you, they wouldn't make or continue PT. So thank you!

Honestly, I could drop a few grand on the game, I just get my kicks out of competing as a F2P - that's the fun part for me.

It's just that in previous years, the game was far kinder to F2P grinders. If you played very smart all the way around (tourneys, live updates, building all of your rosters, completing the missions intelligently, etc) you could have a team that was close to or as good as the best P2P teams in the game with a little pack luck. This year, not so much.

[rburgh]

I'm sure there are others who disagree with you. But my conversations with Bailey have shown me the pain that the game has inflicted on the FTP guys by reducing the pack rewards on the Quick tournaments drastically and making so many of the superstar cards LE's or elite tourney rewards. I don't believe that I would have made the PL if I hadn't won Frank Thomas in the PTCS tourney I squeaked into and spotted an angle that worked.



This is my 6th season in PT, and the first in which I thought I knew enough about the game to spend more than casual money. Like most, my first year I thought the game was a lark, and that everybody would end up with a good team.


Then I eventually realized that if yo need 26 non-live perfects, you draw a perfect every 200 packs on average, 70% of the cards you draw are live, you have to open 700 packs or so to get one non-live perfect. And only about 20% of the non-live perfects are really worth having in a perfect league. So you have go go through 3500 packs to get one worthwhile perfect at random.


As described elsewhere, missions are best used as PP generators - that means that you have to wait on the live missions until you can complete substantially all of them with nothing but irons and bronzes. And you have to sell the toppers to generate more PP's. Then you have to spend the PP's wisely.



Somewhere along the way I had a pack pull where I got a perfect Brian McCann AND a perfect Cepeda in the same pack. That team eventually made its way to the top level (I think it was still diamond at the time) but predictably got crushed. And that's a one in 50,000 pack happening.



Some FTP people just bid 101 for every silver and 1001 for every gold and when they get one, they try to sell it at a profit. Other people set up dummy teams to accumulate PP's and buy irons from their other account for silly sums. The developers could stop that if they wanted, by keeping all irons available freely in the AH for 100 PP's, Bronzes for 500 PP's, Golds for 5000 PP's, (or pick numbers of your choice) but that would deprive them of the opportunity to play "bad cop" from time to time.


Lots of people, including Bailey, are very good at spamming tourneys, I tried spamming tournaments all day during the pandemic. I got good at the Silver Quicks one year and ran a team up to the perfect level, where it got killed. But that year convinced me that spamming tournaments wasn't for me, I'd be better off working full time and spending money. So here I am. I have time to make a very good living helping the planet, and time for my dogs, and time for my other hobbies. And I have a much better team than I have ever had before.

[Kushiel]

What and who are you talking about? You or nobody else can take the fun out of anything from me. You think too much of yourself. Good for you that you are working, I retired in 2003 at 50 so you are preaching to the choir there. After this long retired, the best lesson I learned is to protect and hoard my money so that lasts.

I am happy for your success with the game. I have had success and failure along the way and had a blast doing it. I love the game. I want it to last but fear it may not as is.

You need plankton for the whales. No plankton - no whales. No whales - no game.

[Ty Cobb]

Originally Posted by HRBaker

This is what happens when you raise the talent so-far, so-fast, that you reach a point you either have to create "supermen" or you have to cloth players in superman outfits.

but for a different reason. For me, it was "Legend" Luis Alicea. First time I drew one, I just stopped and said, "What in the..." Well, the rest...it's a bit salty and there might be some wee lads about.